I actually have a rather special case. To make a long story short, I began to tear down a house sparrow nest that I thought had no eggs in it (the nest was in a bad place) and after I had torn out some of the nest, I found two eggs. Either I missed them when I was looking or they were hidden under a layer of the nest. If I had known there were eggs, I would have left it be, but since I found them too late, I felt kinda bad and put them in my zebra finches' nest.

Their names are KC and Bianca and they have never had babies even though I've had the pair in the same cage for almost a year. They get along fine, but it just seems they're unable bear young for some reason or another. Anyway, to my surprise,a little less than two weeks later, one of the sparrows hatched and two days later, the second one did as well. I saw Bianca taking them in as if they were her own. She would go inside the nest and fluff out and cover them and I even caught a glimpse of her putting her beak into a mouth of a baby. I know she was feeding them because neither one died after the first three days of life.

The second one eventually died after a few days, but the first one thrived. I supplemented as much as I could that the finches would take that would be nutritious for the sparrows to eat. The most I could compromise was eggfood mixed with applesauce, a little avamin and calciboost and also gave the finches sprouts along with their usual millet and seed. I believe the finches took the little ones under their wing the best they could, and after 9 days, I took over. I would have taken over a day or two earlier, but I had other commitments I had to finish first (school finals and work). I did take over the day before my last final because that day I had disturbed the nest to remove the dead baby. I think I spooked her and after that, I noticed Bianca not caring for the little one and he was screaming more than usual.

After I fed him, this was the most quiet I had seen this little one in days. I compared a picture of Coconut to the ones on a site that showed sparrows at different stages of development. I would say he seemed to be about 2-3 days behind schedule. He may have been a little behind, but now he's coming along nicely, seems perfectly healthy and has a lot of spunk (this is why I am assuming Coconut is a he).

I think the reason Coconut was a bit underdeveloped was most likely because he was not getting enough food, as zebra finches are a bit smaller bird, but if I was a bird, I couldn't ask for a pair of more loving and devoted foster parents.

Article © Heather 2004